20th Century Isms Flashcards
1
Q
In what time and place did expressionism flourish?
A
Before, during, and after WWI in Germany and Austria
2
Q
Expressionism first appeared in what disciplines?
A
visual art and literature
3
Q
What is the general premise of expressionism?
A
an extravagant and apparently chaotic surface conveys turbulence in the composer’s psyche
4
Q
Who are the major expressionist composers (narrow definition)?
A
Schoenberg’s post-tonal, pre-dodecaphonic output; some Berg and Webern
5
Q
What is a psychogram?
A
a chart on which personality traits are marked according to a guiding psychological viewpoint
6
Q
What composer is credited with creating the starting point for expressionism?
A
Wagner, especially Kundry’s music in Parsifal
7
Q
What separates expressionism from Wagner?
A
avoiding cadences, repetition, sequence, balanced phrases, and reference to formal or procedural models
8
Q
Who are the major expressionist composers (looser definition)?
A
Mahler, Skryabin, Hauer, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Bartók, Hindemith, Ives, Krenek and others
9
Q
What is problematic about classifying certain important stage works of the 1920s by Weill, Hindemith, and Krenek?
A
They retain expressionist charateristics visually and in text, but not in music
10
Q
What is a more journalistic/wider application of expressionism?
A
any music in any era where self-expression eclipses coherence or flouts convention
11
Q
Who is credited with coining the term, expressionism? When?
A
English art critic, Roger Eliot Fry (1909) to contrast with the passivity of impressionism
12
Q
Who first applied Expressionism to music?
A
Heinz Tiessen (1920) and Arnold Schering (1919)
13
Q
What was the German equivalent to the term expressionism?
A
Ausdrucksmusik
14
Q
Expressionist proponents cite a desire to elevate what aspects of music?
A
non-referential, purely expressive, not influenced by extraneous impulses (arts/humanities)
15
Q
Which 1920-1921 periodicals hosted a war of words about the “healthiness” of modern music/expressionism?
A
Allgemeine Musikzeitung and Melos
16
Q
What is ironic about the 1920-1921 debates over expressionism?
A
The works we now cite as classic expressionism were written then, but not well-known until almost a decade later
17
Q
Early mentions of expressionism almost always connect it to what?
A
the world of the unconsious
18
Q
Kandinsky refered to the unconscious as what?
A
“the inner reality”
19
Q
Expressionists connect the unconscious with what?
A
Truth and freedom from the “lie” of convention and tradition
20
Q
What two elements did Schoenberg set as opposites?
A
truth and beauty
21
Q
What Schoenberg song cycle is often regarded as one of his earliest expressionist?
A
Das Buch der hängenden Gärten
22
Q
Citing inner compulsion negated what?
A
criticism based on professional skill, beauty, or other traditionally accepted values
23
Q
What 1910 maxim of Schoenberg summarizes his approach to Expressionism? Who first promulgated the phrase?
A
“Art comes not from ability but from necessity.” Paul Fechter in his book: Expressionism (1914)
24
Q
What sound is a centeral topos of expressionism? Why?
A
the scream; the outer manifestation of inner suffering without any kind of traditional buffer
25
What elements often led expressionists to political extremes?
anti-bourgeois/anti-establishment tone; emphasis on inner transformation
26
Expressionism flourished most in what literary genre? Why? Why does that translate easily to music?
poetry and theatre rather than novels; disdain for concrete meaning and narrative; concrete meaning has rarely been a part of music
27
How did musicians use and apply the term expressionism?
They rarely used it, and almost never referred to themselves as an expressionist; rather, it was a state of mind
28
What is celebrated as Schoenberg's watershed expressionist composition?
Second String Quartet (1907-8), gradually becomes freer from late-Romantic language and form. (Last two movements include a solo soprano)
29
What circumstances are connected to the composition of Schoenberg's 2nd String Quartet?
his wife had an affair with painter Richard Gerstl; when she returned to Schoenberg, Gerstl committed suicide
30
What year was the high point of Schoenberg's Expressionist output? What piece, specifically?
1909; Erwartung
31
Describe the genre and plot of Erwartung
One act monodrama; a woman search for her lover at night finds his dead body, goes crazy, and confesses to his murder
32
How is Erwartung representative of expressionism?
written very quickly; avoids repetition; denies stability of any kind including tempo; chromatic harmony to a point of static; texture swinging from paralysis and hyperactivity
33
Erwartung influenced whom?
Berg
34
Why was Berg less expressionist in his compositions?
His compositions tend to have more surface beauty and leanings toward constructivism
35
Why did expressionism flourish and decline?
No longer needing patronage, artists explored their freedom; no longer connecting to audiences, they sought to reconnect and become more relevant
36
What was a major problem with expressionism?
no way to support large-scale pieces except for with texts
37
What quote by Kasimir Edschmid exemplifies expressionists' relationship to realism?
"The World is out there…it would be absurd to reproduce it."
38
What is neue sachlichkeit?
A form of neo-classicism that retained a version of expressionist mannerisms with a more sober aesthetic outlook
39
Why did Expressionism experience a resurgence after WWII?
Any art movement that had been stigmatized by the Nazis was "sympathetically reconsidered"
40
When did Neo-Classicism flourish? What are its primary characteristics?
Between the two world wars; balanced forms, clear thematic processes
41
What was Neo-Classicism reacting to?
exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism
42
Who traced the history and evolution of the term "Neo-Classicism"?
Scott Messing (1988)
43
How can one see neo-classicism in a light other than regressive or nostalgic?
Because of the implementation of extended harmonic language, it often demonstrates a "multiplicity of awareness" that is only possible from a modern perspective
44
With what term is neo-classicism often synonomous?
postmodernism (except for historical sequence, pm relating to after the 1950s)
45
When in visual arts was "neo-classicism" applied?
late 18th and early 19th century, in the 1920s to certain painters (Matisse, Picasso)
46
Neue Sachlichkeit refers to who?
artists who rejected expressionism in favor of economy of means and positive expression
47
What was the chief aim of Neo-Classicism?
reacting to the excesses of expressionism, an attempt to refine and control expression, not to eliminate it
48
Neo-Classicism was first applied to what composer?
Stravinsky in 1923
49
Taruskin equated neo-classicism with what?
the historical performance movement, "a tendentious journey back to where we had never been"
50
Who said referred to Neo-classicism as "the historical performance movement", "a tendentious journey back to where we had never been"
Taruskin
51
Stravinsky Craft conversations see neo-classicism as what? Vs. What?
"period of formulation" following the "period of exploration"
52
Stravinsky Craft conversations see what three schools of neo-classicism?
Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Schoenberg (12-tone, but relating in terms of texture and form)
53
How does Boulez differentiate between Stravinsky and Schoenberg?
Stravinsky was tonal and Schoenberg was chromatic
54
What two Schoenberg pieces are typical of his neo-classicism?
dance movements from the Piano Suite Op. 25 (1921-1923) and sonata-form first movement of Wind Quintet op. 26 (1923-4)
55
Stravinsky-Craft defines the height of Expressionism as occurring in what year?
1912 (Pierrot lunaire, for example)
56
Why is it difficult to label a given composer as neo-classical?
some compositions may seem more neo-classical or more expressionist than others, depending on the goals and state of mind for the composer on a given day. Few were consistently one or the other
57
What is one danger of Neo-Classicism as an analytical term?
It may result in unnecessary oversimplification
58
When and where did constructivism originate?
Russia, 1919
59
What did constructivism advocate and reject?
Advocated art as a social practice, rejected artistic autonomy
60
Constructivism placed a high premium on what?
making the viewer more active in experiencing the artwork
61
Define minimalism.
A term borrowed from the visual arts, music characterized by an intentionally simplified rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic vocabulary.
62
What did minimalism react to?
modernism, including the serialism of Boulez/Stockhausen and the indeterminacy of Cage
63
What are some major influences on minimalism?
non-Western music, jazz, and rock
64
What were core principals of minimalists?
openly seeking greater accessibility through tonality/modality, regular and continuous rhythms, and simple structures/textures
65
Whose music in what period typifies minimalism?
Philip Glass in the 1980s and 1990s
66
Who were a part of "holy minimalism" and why?
Henryk Gorecki, Arvo Part, and John Tavener due to their overtly spiritual approach (Stephen Wright?)
67
What crucial characteristics are shared between minimalist visual art and music?
reduction of artistic materials to their essentials; regularity of formal design to pulsing
68
How do visual and musical minimalism differ?
Where music reacted to styles known for intellectual abstraction, visual arts reacted to works that tended to be evocative in favor of art that doesn't suggest anything but itself (Barbara Rose) or "what you see is what you see" (Frank Stella)
69
What characterizes visual minimalism?
right angle, squares and cubes, prefabricated materials, industrial colors, eliminating metaphor
70
Who are the pioneers in musical minimalism? (4)
La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass
71
Who are the pioneers in visual minimalism and where were they based?
Stella (painting); Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Carl Andre (sculpture); New York
72
What cultural movements contributed to the development of minimalist music?
counter-culture in 1960s California (Riley); Manhattan scene of the 60s and 70s (Young, Reich, Glass); breaking down of barriers between various art forms and kinds of music
73
What is unique about Young's music vs. the other three minimalists? What piece exmplifies this? When?
sustained sounds rather than pulsing repetition; experiments with just intonation and improvisation; beginning with Trio for Strings (1958)
74
What is Riley known for? What piece? When?
modal material in constantly repeating patterns and unvarying fast pulses, jazz/rock influences; In C; (1964)
75
For what technique is Reich most known? What piece characterizes it? When?
phasing--gradually shifting relationships resulting from modal mjusical material deployed against itself contrapuntally; Drumming; 1965-1971
76
For what technique is Glass most known? What piece characterizes it? When?
organized additive and subtractive rhythmic processes; Music in Twelve Parts; 1967-1974
77
What filmmaker befriended and influenced Reich and Glass?
Michael Snow
78
What visual artist befriended and influenced Glass and Reich?
Richard Serra
79
How does John Adams' music differ from earlier minimalism? What is a term that may better describe his music?
reintroduction of metaphor; reappearance of a kind of harmonic motion; post-minimalist?
80
What composers have expanded on Young's experiments with sustained sound?
Pauline Oliveros and Phill Niblock
81
What is perhaps minimalism's greatest contribution to music?
Erosion of cultural and musical barriers to allow composers to explore many styles
82
What is the key factor to calling something "nationalist"?
Intent. The presence of regional or national elements doesn't mean they were created by a nationalist composer. They must have been created specifically with nationalist intent in mind.
83
Why is a nation not necessarily a political entity?
it is a self-descriptive concept; German speakers were diveded by religion; Italian co-religionists by language
84
In the 1969 Harvard Dictionary of Music, Willi Apel defines nationalism as a reaction to what?
the supremacy of German music, beginning in the late 19th century. Generally, French, German, and Italian music is exempted from the nationalistic label
85
How do modern scholars view nationalism?
As a valid approach to composition, discrediting older prejudices against nationalist writing.
86
What is a neoclassical piece representative of the Hindemith school?
???
87
What are some early examples of nationalism? (4)
Gregorian chant relating to the union of Frankish kings and the Roman church establishing the Carolingian Empire; publication of vernacular songs in the early 16th century with their representative "genres"; Handelian oratorio where the chosen people were understood to equate to the British people; Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco representing the newly unified Italian people
88
Contrast the Romantic and Enlightened view of nationalism.
Enlightenment philosophy saught universality; Romanticism celebrated difference and uniqueness
89
Before Romanticism, how were nationalistic elements treated/received?
As representing the poor, uneducated classes of a given culture or as a stereotype/parody
90
What cemented Copland's vision of Americanism?
Recognition by other composers and audiences as a distinctly American sound, though it was actually a composer's creation more than anything else
91
How did Dvorak see Copland's use of jazz in his early compositions? How did others see Gershwin's similar approach?
As profaning the high arts by introducing low culture; as elevating low culture
92
What term may describe Chopin's mazurkas and polonaises?
tourist nationalism or exoticism--bringing foreign folklore to home audiences
93
What term may describe Stravinsky's compositions for Diaghilev?
export nationalism--bringing Russian folklore to foreign audiences
94
Contrast Romantic Russians with Stravinsky in their use of nationalistic themes.
Romantics sought only thematic material in peasant music, turning it into a German style; Stravinsky used folk music to liberate his compositions from western conventions
95
How did the French see Stravinsky?
As their nationalist standard-bearer in the fight against German nationalism
96
Who was responsible for starting the movement to enthrone Stravinsky over French music?
Jacques Riviere, beginning in 1913 immediately after Rite of Spring (in New French Review)
97
Quote Riviere's explanation of Stravinsky's greatness.
"he wants to enunciate everything directly, explicily, concretely….he has passed from the sung to the said, from invocation to statement, from poetry to reportage."
98
Why is praise from Riviere and others a "covert nationalism"?
It couched it's praise as exhibiting French virtues, only by implication classical ones, opposing German universalism and claimed superiority
99
Compare Ravel and Schonberg in their nationalistic tendencies.
Ravel saw his music as growing from (and by implication) replacing inferior schools from Slavic, Scandinavian, German, and Italian lands; Schonberg saw 12-note technique as ensuring the supremacy of German music for a century.
100
How is Bartok an interesting example of the nationalist wars of the 20th century?
He took a non-aggressive approach, presenting a works from a variety of traditions; his folk-inspired compositions were tauted in the Eastern bloc and the rest banned, Western critics latched onto the banned modernist works
101
How was serialism used during the Cold War?
As safe haven from the dangers of nationalistic composition--in light of McCarthyism and similar Red Scares
102
Translate Volkstümlichkeit.
Folksiness
103
What is the German term for "folksiness" and how was it used in the 20th century?
Volkstümlichkeit; a quality championed by Soviet government musicians, panned by the western avant garde
104
Why is Soviet support of Volkstümlichkeit ironic?
Marx was an opponent of such nationalism, preferring instead slogans such as "Workers of the world, unite"
105
What challenge exists for defining nationalism in the late 20th century?
nations are so interconnected, that it is hard to find truly separate cultures
106
How does ethnomusicology fit into the contemporary discussion of nationalism?
a global perspective that is not eurocentric, but brings awareness to trends of local communities and individuals
107
Pointillism is related to the art form pioneered by what visual artist? What is his style of painting?
Georges Seurat; using clusters of tiny dots of color to create larger conglomerate images
108
Pointillism is often a by-product of what other technique?
Serialism
109
What composers are known for the more sparce type of pointillism?
Webern, Boulez, and Stockhausen
110
What composer is known for a denser version of pointilism that results in clouds of sound, more like Seurat's visual art?
Xenakis
111
What are examples of the sparse pointillism?
???
112
What are examples of the dense pointillism?
???
113
When did the term, "postmodernism" come into usage? Where?
Late 1970s onward; American in origin
114
Describe the reasons for broad applications of the term, "postmodernism".
multiple usages of "modern" and "modernist" with many different connotations; disagreement on the implications of "post"; disagreement on whether it is progressive or regressive
115
What are some general definitions of postmodernist philosophy?
a move from Western-dominated ideology; a shift from imperialism and centralization to popularism and diversity; undermining of faith in favor of capitalism and mass media
116
What are some postmodern trends in music?
Internationalism; rejection of abstraction as a universal language; celebration of local and personal diversity over national and international unity;
117
Some see the relationship of modernism and postmodernism as what?
An ongoing cycle of action/reaction like classicism/romanticism
118
How is minimalism a type of postmodernism?
It resists the modernist emphasis on tonality, structure, narrative qualities, and analytical memory
119
How is quotation different in a postmodern work vs. a modernist work?
In modernism, quotation was used to elevate, satirize, or otherwise reflect on the borrowed work. In postmodernism, there is no effort to assert dominance in one fashion or another.
120
Which composers' works exemplify postmodernism of accessibility?
Bolcom, Zwilich, Part
121
Which composers' works exemplify postmodernism of resistance?
Glass, Reich, Adams
122
Which composers' works exemplify postmodernism of connection and interpenetration?
Berio (Sinfonia [1968]); Schnittke (Third String Quartet [1983])
123
How is the audience's role different in postmodern music?
finding meaning is more a responsibility of the listener than the composer (see Cage's 4'33" and participatory/indeterminate works by Pauline Oliveros for examples)
124
How did Soviet critics apply the term formalism?
as condemnation for artists whose works did not conform to the materialistic tenets of Marxist-Leninist aesthetics
125
What was the opposite of formalism during Stalin's reign?
Soviet Realism
126
Are there any particular aesthetic qualities common to works declared "formalist"?
Not really; it could have been a piece Stalin didn't like, a piece condemned by a critic who feared being labeled "wrong-footed", or applied to a composer the party wished to discipline; However, dense textures, avoidance of melody, and absence of clear tonality were commonly criticised elements
127
What is Socialist Realism?
The official artistic doctrine of the USSR from 1932 onwards
128
What party resolution created Soviet Realism? What did it do?
The Party Resolution "On the Reconstruction of Literary and Artistic Organizations" eliminated existing artistic organizations and established a union for each art form
129
What term did Soviet Realism grow out of/replace?
Critical Realism, a tsarist literary movement, of which Tolstoy was most celebrated; used to draw attention to the oppressed masses under the old regime
130
What kinds of music were not allowed in Soviet Realism?
experimental music; works with subject matter that criticized the government; works that did not lead to triumphant endings
131
What elements were demanded by Soviet Realist critics?
symphonic/organic development; use of folk songs; optimism
132
What challenge existed for composers seeking to adhere to Soviet Realism?
over-reliance on folk music or organic development could be seen as celebrating bourgeois nationalism or other subversive causes
133
Why was Soviet Realism considered necessary and realistic?
Officially, there was no reason to criticize any government action--any suffering was necessary for the furtherance of the people's goals or was necessary to rid the country of foreign fascism and invading agents
134
Who coined the term, "holy minimalism"?
???
135
What is serialism?
A method of composition in which a fixed permutation, or series, of elements is referential
136
Who introduced serialism? In what form? When?
Schoenberg; serial treatment of the 12 chromatic pitches; early 1920s
137
Other than Berg and Webern, who were early adopters of serialism?
Dallapiccola and Krenek
138
In the decade after WWII, who were the major composers of serialism?
Babbitt, Boulez, Nono, and Stockhausen
139
Why is dodecophony more ambiguous than 12-note serialism?
Because it can also refer to atonal music that does not employ serialism
140
What are the for forms of a 12-note row?
prime, inversion, retrograde, retrograde inversion
141
What is left undefined by the 12-note serial?
the registers of pitch and register changes; the portion of the series presented vertically or linearly; the number of concurrent statements of the series; how many series are used; how subsequent serial statements are linked
142
Translate Haupstimme/Hauptsatz. What is it?
Main voice/chief part, denoted by H; the contrapuntal or melodic line of chief importance
143
Translate Nebenstimme/seitensatz. What is it?
secondary voice/secondary part, denoted by N; the secondary contrapuntal or melodic part, occuring simultaneously with and subsidiary to the Hauptstimme
144
What Schoenberg piece exemplifies his early serial technique?
Variations for Orchestra, op. 31 (1928)
145
What is combinatoriality?
The ability to combine two complimentary sets into a single 12-tone series
146
In serialism, a "voice" may refer to what two types?
vertical or linear
147
What two principles are typically most important in serialism?
invariance and combinatoriality
148
Describe Berg's treatment of serialism.
Very free; no piece or movement keeps a single series; hexachords may be consistent in the pitches they contain, but not in the order of those pitches; rarely retrogrades; less octave displacement
149
Describe Webern's approach to serialism.
Always uses a single series for each composition; only used the standard 48 forms; rarely repeated notes or groups of notes; rarely presented the series in a constant timbre; symmetrical series
150
What two notions are central to Babbitt's serialism?
the secondary set and the derived set
151
Define a secondary set.
formed by combining complimentary hexachords from different iterations of a single series
152
Define a derived set
A series formed by taking an element (of two, three, four or six pitch classes) from a serial form and building from it, by serial transformations, a new 12-note succession
153
What composers sometimes employed series of more or fewer than 12 pitches?
Schoenberg (Five Piano Pieces, Op 23, 1920-1923), Stravinsky (Cantata, 1951-2), Berio (Nones for Orchestra, 1954)
154
What composer experimented with quarter-tone serialism?
Boulez, Le Visage nuptial, 1946, revised 1950-1951)
155
What composers first experimented with rhythmic serialism?
Berg (Lyric Suite, third movement, 1925-1926) and Webern (Variations op. 30 for orchestra, 1940)
156
What composer developed a systematic method for serializing durations?
Boulez (Structures Ia for Two Pianos, 1952)
157
What challenges exist for rhythmic serialism?
lack of an analogue for transposition; duration intervals are proportional, not absolute
158
What is "total serialism"?
Applying serial principles to all elements of music, including tempo, dynamics, timbre, attack, instrumentation, etc.
159
What composers are associated with total serialism? When?
Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono (early 1950s)
160
What is one of the few compositions to attempt total serialism with any thoroughness?
Boulez's Structures I
161
What ideas developed from total serialism and persevered through later serial works?
avoidance of repetition at all levels; pre-compositional creation of "scales" for non-pitch elements; search for forms that are consonant with serialism
162
What authors have raised questions about the communicability of serialism?
Meyer, Levi-Strauss, Ruwet
163
In what three ways to serialists respond to criticism of communicability?
that serial techniques are not meant to be perceived aurally; that it gives music coherence that is perceived subconsciously; that serial procedures can be perceived by listeners who are willing to learn to do so
